How do you keep the conversation going when a patient responds in French to a bilingual greeting? This is the question behind CALMe (Cartes cliniques d’aide linguistique médicale), a project led by Katherine Taplin and Tiffany Ange Tchigio Djomou, two third-year medical students at the University of Ottawa. Their goal is to support the active offer of French-language services in Ottawa and make initial interactions with Francophone patients easier.
The idea emerged during a session on active offer at Hôpital Montfort attended by students from the MD Class of 2028. Active offer means proactively offering patients services in their official language of choice, without waiting for them to ask. During the session, however, several students wondered how to continue the conversation if a patient responded in French after hearing “Bonjour, Hello.” This uncertainty can discourage students from making an active offer in the first place.
To address this need, the project involves developing small bilingual reference cards featuring common expressions and questions for welcoming Francophone patients. Examples include “What is your name?” and “I don’t speak French, but I’ll find someone who does.”
Access to health care in French remains a significant concern. According to Statistics Canada’s 2022 data, 36% of French-speaking adults in Ontario who considered it important to receive services in French felt that accessing those services in their community would be difficult, very difficult or impossible. The language of care can also affect quality and safety: an Ontario study of hospitalized home care recipients found that care provided by physicians who spoke their patients’ language was associated with fewer adverse events, lower in-hospital mortality and shorter hospital stays.
The CALMe cards aim to give students and health care professionals a simple, accessible tool to begin conversations and connect patients with French-language services. While they do not replace medical interpretation services, they may help create a welcoming and reassuring environment while an interpreter or a staff member able to provide care in French is contacted.
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